The hours passed and Sarah's research stagnated. The three newcomers had fortunately left with her sister to scout and guide the others from their faction, but even without the strangers around, the scientist couldn't achieve much.

Sure, she did come up with a few ideas and theories, be it in regard to the soul spike, as she dubbed the weapon which attacked her, or magic in general she had witnessed in the realms, however not more. Her mana and mental capacities were unfortunately required to power her current spell and the traps.

Well, not all of those resources were in use and even though it would have probably been better, had she just charged up the spell, her curiosity had forced her to prepare a few of those ideas.

Yet testing was still not possible, as guinea pigs were missing. The idea of using the from time to time arriving faction members as test subjects did cross her mind, however that would cause too many issues. They needed to have their full power to defend her, she had no idea whether her other experiments would interfere with her ritual, more mana would be needed and her allies probably wouldn't be too keen on becoming sacrifices for some tests, which were mostly unrelated to what was currently happening.

So mentally sighing, the girl continued with the theoretical part of her work.

Then, not much later, the real war began, or at least what Sarah would describe as such.

The previous few level 50 and above beasts they encountered became just cannon fodder, as the truly strong ones emerged. Though the mage didn't experience much of it personally, to her disappointment and relief. The destruction caused was however easily noticeable and if she had been near a fight it wouldn't be surprising if she had died to some side effects of an attack, be it from her enemies or allies.

----------------------------------------

Sera, on the other hand, was in the middle of it all, much to her enjoyment. The girl's much higher physical attribute value allowed her to survive the fallout of the fights, but also her combat instincts allowed her to evacuate scenes before they became too dangerous.

Furthermore her new necklace with healing properties helped.

Though, if there was one thing she had to complain about, it would be the lack of progress.

Even she had to admit that the fights were a bit out of her league and without taking part in the conflicts, there was little experience to be gained.

But apparently Eas had pity on her.

[Your Insanity skill has reached Lv 5.]

Not necessarily the skill she wanted to level, but she still liked to see the levels rise. Or maybe even that feeling was caused by her insanity? But, evading an attack which easily destroyed a few of the stone trees, she didn't care.

Actually, shouldn't she at least gain levels in her Blade Dancer class? Then again, since she got her Crucible skill, leveling up did become harder. Likely the price she had to pay for also leveling unrelated classes passively.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Distancing herself a bit more, she then noticed a wounded [Ancient Obsidian Golem Lv 69]. Half of its body was missing and its core was revealed. Apparently it was trying to get away from the fights for a moment to regenerate.

Too bad it wouldn't get that moment.

Seeing an opportunity, the warrior quickly approached the being and threw a fireball. Surprised by the sudden attack, the wounded enemy tried to block the flames and even succeeded, however that left it open for the girls scythe, which got quickly lodged into the crystalline core of the beast.

[You killed an Ancient Obsidian Golem Lv 69.]

[Your Tailor class has reached Lv 3.]

Still not what she had expected, but a level was a level.

----------------------------------------

With the attack of the beasts, Jeanne's faction also started to move.

The tents were quickly left behind together with some of the lower leveled members of their faction. They would likely just stand in the way, cause unnecessary casualties and might even help their opponent by providing easy targets to grind their level.

Abandoning their headquarter wasn't a move they would employ in most cases, but as they currently just needed to stop the ritual to win the war, having a base became more of a hindrance than an advantage.

Assembling all their members, they quickly set out.

Passing the distance did take a while, but it was still within their calculations. Their enemies could tire themselves out against the hordes, then they would approach and clean everything up. Maybe not the most kindhearted plan, however the quest never stated that the beasts of the realm had to survive.

Also, even if they all died out, Eas would sooner or later repopulate the area, so no need to risk one's own life needlessly.

[2:31:20:62 remaining.]

[2:29:01:39 remaining.]

[3:04:31:47 remaining.]

[3:09:60:18 remaining.]

[2:25:56:04 remaining.]

The time fluctuations could become an issue, as they made it increasingly hard to judge how long they actually had to stop the rite, but her own plan was still to fire at the spell, hope to disrupt it or at least create a distraction and then flee.

Then, soon after entering the forest, combat noise could be heard. Not from the front lines where the occasional spell or technique caused explosions or similar sound creating phenomenons, but much closer. Their own scouts had likely run into those of the enemy faction.

They might need to change their path or send out a few more fighters to deal with them, but those weren't questions and tasks for the archer. She was still pretty much in a safe position in the back part of the center of their group of fighters.

The leaders of the faction apparently didn't want the enemy to know of her existence too soon. A fact which worked out for the young woman, as she also wasn't that keen on participating in the fights.

So she used the time to center herself while still keeping her senses spread, in case there were any attacks which could have hit her.

And before long it was time for her to do her part!